The incident happened in the town of Conrad just north of Marshalltown in Grundy County.

Students at BCLUW High School are just discovering the bizarre secret.

Police said one of the teacher aides, Paula Pace, is a convicted killer.

In 1965, Pace was known as Paula Baniszewski in Indianapolis.

She was a member of a family that tortured and killed a neighbor girl -- 16-year-old Sylvia Likens -- in the Baniszewski home.

Pace's mother, Gertrude, was convicted of murder and has since died. Pace pleaded guilty of involuntary manslaughter at just 17-years-old.

"It's bizarre that things like this happen," Grundy County Sheriff Rick Penning said.

The sheriff said he got a call tipping him to Pace's past last week.

"Our information is totally anonymous or whether it was someone with a vendetta or with curiosity or safety of the students that they want to make sure everybody is legit in the school system," Penning said.

The sheriff told school administrators and that's when Pace was suspended. The shocking news spread like wildfire.

"It was just weird, why, cause we're in like basically the middle of nowhere. And every one wants something big to happen but we really didn't expect that to happen I guess," student Zoe Counter said.

During a closed session Tuesday night, the school board voted to fire Pace.

"I recommend that the board of education terminate the employment of Paula Pace, effective immediately for providing false information on her application," Superintendent Ben Petty said.

The board refused to answer questions about the controversy.

Parents said they want to know how Pace's past went undiscovered for 14 years.

One parent who showed up at the meeting hoped the BCLUW administration has learned a lesson.

"I would like our schools to step up and make it mandatory to do background checks so something like this does not happen. This had a happy ending, but it could have had a bad ending," parent Belnida Wallen said.

NewsChannel 8 reporters tried to ask what Pace lied about on her employment application with the school district but Petty said neither he nor the board would have anything else to say.

Pace could not be reached for comment.

Grundy said Pace's record was clean otherwise. Some of the students at the school said Pace was always nice to them.

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